Nigerian govt plans to shut down refineries for upgrade

The Nigerian government said it would close operations at state-owned refineries temporarily as part of plans to obtain funding and a model to upgrade the facilities.

Mele Kyari, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief said on Twitter Tuesday that the oil sector would consider cutting spending and prolong payments wherever there was a chance of doing so in order to cushion the effects of oil prices that reached an eighteen-year low last month.

“Today, after proper scoping, which was not done in the past, we know exactly what to do to get them back on stream,” Mr Kyari said.

The NNPC boss confirmed that funding had been obtained without giving details even though previous efforts at funding repairs had proved abortive.

“Aside from proper scoping, we’re also going to have an Operation & Maintenance (O&M) contract, a different model of getting the refineries to work. We are looking at the NLNG structure where world-class processes will always be in play. We’ve seen it work before with success,” the NNPC chief said.